


a troubled past

by hquties (timelessidyll)



Series: writober 2017 [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Some mentions of blood, an ambiguous relationship is in there, and goes through some tough times, because he can be, but hinata doesn't actually meet him yet, but not overly explicit, nekomata is mentioned briefly as appearing, suga is half-dryad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-08 19:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12260832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timelessidyll/pseuds/hquties
Summary: A topic comes up that Sugawara finds difficult to talk about.





	a troubled past

**Author's Note:**

> TW: blood is mentioned during suga's story  
> please read the other works in this story for background on suga, shouyou, and ukai-sensei!

Shouyou looked up from his position on the floor of the common room in the cave to see Sugawara standing with a cup of steaming tea held out towards him. They had decided to come back inside after Shouyou’s failed attempt at tapping into forest magic, and seeing the tea, Shouyou was painfully reminded of how he hadn’t eaten anything that day. Gratefully, he accepted it, hoping to calm the growling of his stomach. Sugawara smiled back at him and sat down at a cushion across from him, sipping from his own cup. Shouyou took some time to properly look at Sugawara’s face.

The witch wore a typical clock fastened around his throat, falling in a “V” shape around his body and leaving his arms free, with a hood in the back. As far as Shouyou knew, Sugawara didn’t carry a hat around with them, which would probably make him stand out more. His silver hair was smooth but tossed around his head as if he had been standing in the face of a strong wind, and his brown eyes were warm and inviting. But one detail made Shouyou squint to make sure he was seeing properly. His eyes weren’t lying to him; Sugawara’s ears were slightly pointed. Before he could think about it further, Shouyou had blurted his question out.

“Suga-san, why are your ears pointed?” Sugawara blinked in surprise at the sudden question, and when Shouyou’s brain caught up to him, he winced, gazing away in shame. “Ah, I’m sorry, that wasn’t for me to ask-”

“-Do you really want to know, Hinata?” He glanced back to see Sugawara staring at him intently, his eyes sharper than before. Ignoring the trepidation crawling up his spine, Shouyou nodded wordlessly. This prompted a sigh from Sugawara, and he slumped down as if all the air had been knocked out of him. “I suppose if you’ll be living with us, it wouldn’t be right to keep secrets.

“I was born to a dryad mother and a human father. I’m not sure how that even worked, because Father never told me anything. My mother had given me to him as a newborn, not wanting anything to do with a demi-blood child, and vanished without a trace. Father didn’t know where her tree was, but he didn’t particularly care either. The moment I was old enough to travel, he whisked us away from that old village where elderly ladies followed rumors like hounds on a scent trail. He raised me to be human, and told me about how I could never let anyone know I was a demi-blood, and definitely not that I was half-dryad. Of course, why would anything work the easy way, huh?” A mirthless chuckle escaped Sugawara, and his eyes fell downcast.

“I grew careless. Being a demi meant that I had a certain distinguishable scent to those who had the ability to smell it, and Father always went to great lengths to make sure that I could cover it up. But I forgot one day. That was a day I had decided to go down to the river with some of my new friends, when I was about seventeen. A hellhound found me, splashing around by the riverside, and I could give you all the details of how I knew exactly when it had found me, the putrid scent of death heavy in the air, the way the temperature seemed to drop to freezing. I won’t do that to you, though,” he reassured, seeing Shouyou looked close to throwing up. “You don’t deserve the pain I experienced. But I will tell you that it nearly tore me apart, and I still have the scars to prove that it did. I think they’re what remind me, sometimes, when I’m in a daze and think I’ve hallucinated it all, that what happened was real. 

“When it finally decided to stop playing with me, I could only lay there bleeding to death by the river, staining the water scarlet and feeling the dirt soak up the blood pouring out of me. That was when Ukai-sensei found me.” At this point, Sugawara’s eyes regained some of the light that had disappeared during the retelling of the story. “I don’t remember exactly how it happened, because by this point I was beginning to feel the effects of dying, and I’m sure if he had come even a minute later, I would have been too far gone. As it was, the next time I woke up and retained the memories of the interaction, I had called Daichi hot stuff in a coma induced haze and completely made a fool of myself.” Shouyou spluttered mid-sip, coughing when some of the tea slipped down his windpipe. Sugawara laughed merrily, looking lighter now that he had finished the story. “So as long as that’s not what you do when you meet everyone else for the first time, I think you’ll get along with them fine.” Shouyou wiped his mouth on his sleeve, glancing sheepishly at Sugawara for the interruption.

“Thank you for sharing your story with me, Suga-san. I know it must mean a lot to you.”

“Don’t worry too much about, Hinata. It had to be done sooner or later, and it’s probably best that we got this out of the way.” Shouyou set down his cup, having finished his tea, and rested his hands on the ground to lean forwards.

“Who else lives in these caves with you, Suga-san? You’re the first person I’ve seen besides Ukai-sensei who lives here.”

“Oh, so you haven’t met the Ukai-san yet?” Shouyou tilted his head to the side, furrowing his eyebrows at the somewhat familiar name. “Ukai-sensei’s son. His name is Ukai Keishin, and he’s supposed to take over the title of Keeper soon. If you haven’t met him yet, he’s probably at Nekomata-sensei’s Guild.”

“Who’s Nekomata-sensei? And what’s a Guild?” Shouyou didn’t mention that even though he had heard the word multiple times from Ukai-sensei, he had been too petrified by his presence to ask what it meant.

“A Guild is a group of chosen members operated by a Keeper who spend their time making sure that creatures who wish to cause harm don’t succeed. Nekomata-sensei operates a Guild near us, so we have strong connections with them. Many of our members are close, or have a friendly rivalry going.” Sugawara stopped talking when they heard a noise from outside. Multiple footsteps were approaching the cave, but stopped suddenly. Ukai-sensei’s voice reached them clearly from where they sat near the entrance.

“Welcome, Nekomata. I’m pleased you could find the energy left in you to come this far to meet me.”  
“Oh dear,” Sugawara whispered, stifling a laugh. “We should get out there before they can insult each other any more.” Shouyou whipped his head towards Sugawara, eyes widening in alarm.

“They’re not going to fight, right?”

“No, of course not, this is just how they speak to each other.” With that said, Sugawara stood up, and began to walk outside. Shouyou scrambled to his feet and followed hurriedly, glancing nervously at himself before deciding his shirt wasn’t too wrinkly and that his dark pants wouldn’t show too much. With a final deep breath to prepare himself, he stepped outside, ready to face someone who no doubt would intimidate him.

**Author's Note:**

> look at me, on track with writober and falling behind in homework :))))  
> hope you guys enjoyed the fic!


End file.
